Christmas at the Cabin

All the kids slept together until Alicia turned into a teenager, at our cabin and home, besides there were only 2 beds anyways, notice my homemade rope ladder because this was on the second floor, Looks like a Family to Me!!!

After Santa's visit, he Even ate the cookies and drank the milk

around 2000 Christmas

kids stringing the garland for the tree in new addition

Our Cabin Can you picture yourself there?

Another Boyles tradition from Santa is Silly String which usually ends up on Mom and Dad

Our Brand New 1974 Suzuki 400 our kids plus Cole and Cody Schnoor, yes it still runs and the kids loved it

Look how ready they are for Santa to come, notice the tree with very few ornaments, we just started our collection that year

Rita's tradition the kids get to open 1 present on Christmas Eve and guess what they are always PJ's(this is because my family always opened gifts on Christmas Morning and Rita's family always Christmas Eve, so we compromised as good parents should

Dad in Heaven on earth

Kids in Front of our old cabin

not our 1st Christmas but this old truck has delivered all our Christmas trees to the cabin

2006 Christmas at the cabin with Rita's Parents

Our 1st Christmas at the cabin with kids 1994

This is one of my favorites, I was just reading the story the night before Christmas when all of sudden I saw Santa Claus shooting across the sky in his Sleigh and the kids just had to see and believe which they still do!!

Our Our 1st Christmas in Jacksonville North Carolina 1980, notice Rita Long Beautiful Hair.

Merry Christmas

We celebrated Rita's Birthday on Friday 12/11/2009, all the kids came up except Ashley who's still in Hawaii. Wayne and Amy, Adam, Becky, Callie, and Emily, Tanner and Loren, Mike and Deb, Sara, Matt and of course my Red Headed step child Lora were there to toast to Rita and all the memories she left us. On Rita's 18th Birthday I asked her to Marry me and we forgot to ask her parents if it was OK, so we didn't tell them until her Mom spotted the ring on her finger and of course they wanted nothing but the best for her so when I got over there , they let me have it with both barrels, and I stood my ground, I guess they might have been preparing me for Boot Camp with all the yelling, after all these years I still feel as close to them as I did my Parents. The Cabin is 95% done and so let me tell you about our 1st Christmas at the Cabin.

I'm trying to remember what year was our first Christmas there, has to be around 1993 or 1994, anyways let me tell you how we celebrated Our Lord Jesus Christ's Birthday. It all starts in a 2 story 600 sq ft cabin in the Roosevelt National Forest, with no running water, electricity and any other comfort that we take for granite these days. That means I get to warm the cabin when we get there, because it is usually about 10 degrees warmer than outside which could be as cold as -22 below. Yep the wife and kids get to enjoy the warmth of the car, until I can get the temperature above 32, so you don't have to see your breath, and when they do come in they huddle around the fireplace. Well we can never make it anywhere on time so by the time I get the cabin warmed up, it time for bed, which brings another fun job of mine, warming the beds and pillows so the kids will actually go to bed. I do this using an old aluminum fry pan that I put on the fireplace and then make mad daces to each bed with a hot pan, the kids and Rita loved it as the beds were toasty warm, of course my side never got the full effect as the kids always wanted more warmth, so I would get the Luke warm pan, But I had Rita to warm me up, Ya Baby! (that means good - Real Good). The next morning we would all wake up to the refreshing fell of the mountains and No TV, Radio, Nintendo, and of course NO PHONE, if fact you can't get any service up there and still can't, Thank God for that one. We get everyone fed and dressed up real warm, because its time to go find our Christmas Tree. What a treat 4 kids with 4 different trees and no one is willing to give up their tree so I can cut it down and put it up in our cabin. This goes on for about a hour because I have made a stand that I will not cut anything until they all decide on 1 tree. Abbie was always the winner because she would always throw a fit and the other kids would just give up, never without a fight though, Rita and I would just sit back and film them and laugh and get mad then laugh again. We have always taken the same truck to get the tree, it's a 1968 Jeep J2000 with seats in the back of the topper to fit all the kids, now don't tell anyone but I haven't licensed it since 1997, beside have you ever seen a license plate on Santa's Sleigh? After I set up the tree its time to make some ornaments from hobby lobby and strings some popcorn, cranberries and fruit loops, which we still have. The kids always go crazy making different ornaments and of course they want that special attention that they made the best one, which of course Abbie always had the Best. We have another tradition that the oldest gets to put the Star on top of the tree and that of course is Alicia until she moves out, which is not for about 6 more years. I didn't have much choices then for lights so all I could come up with was a few battery powered ones, but they did just the trick and really looked beautiful at night with the lanterns off. We always have a fantastic meal on Christmas Eve followed by the kids opening 1 present before they go to bed, which turns out to be always PJ's and of course they must leave cookies and a note to Santa. This is the only day of the year I can get them to bed on time because they know if they don't Santa ain't coming down no chimney here, so off they go and of course I get to read The Night Before Christmas and all through the house, you know the rest. If you can believe it just before they fall asleep I see something through the window could it be, I think it is, so I tell the kids Look there's Santa Clause and his Reindeer streaking through the sky, its looks like a plain but the kids swear they saw him so i said you'd better get to bed. Speaking of rest who ever gets any on Christmas Eve, because Rita has always went all out for Christmas, which means I get to wrap, put together and pull all the hidden presents and put them under the tree. Rita's in charge of writing on the presents from Santa and she always had a certain way to do it and make me eat the cookies and leave lots of crumes and Santa would write something back to the kids. Wowser it about 2am and I haven't Even done the stockings yet! Isn't it Great to be a Mom or Dad!! well I finally make it to bed and just before I turn the Christmas Tree lights on and listen for the kids when they wake up to check if Santa's arrived yet. That is always a Special Treat for me, because I could see them through the vent in the floor and listen to them get all Excited that Santa Clause has come. Well I had to tell you our Christmas story and they still are happening today, just this one will be a little lonier, Rita will be watching from the Best Seat in Heaven as we all Celebrate Jesus Birthday. Merry Christmas Everyone and Happy New Year. Mike and Family

Thankgiving and Cabin ready for carpet

Yep this is our outhouse at the cabin and let me say it will wake you up when you sit down when it -14 out, it is in our shed now, the insulation is a trick on the brain telling it, its keeping the cold out. And the sheet used for a door is our 1st water bed sheet from 1980 Yep I'm a packrat, you never know when you'll use it again

Me and the kids on a downed tree in Sioux Falls

Sunrise off back deck this morning 12/03/2009

Kent, Michael and me finishing bathroom counter

No I'm not flipping you off, unless you deserve it, well I'm showing off my finger which I shot a nail through with my nail gun, pretty handy huh!

Rita's Mom making us coffee like a Good mother in law

Boyles gang from my Dad's brother Pat's Side

My sister Michele and her Family

Our Precious Mejana On Grandpa's chair in kitchen

Me and Grandpa stuffing the turkey, notice the wall decor, it hasn't changed in over 31 years!

Well when we make a fast trip we really do, we left Loveland at 8pm on Wednesday and got to Sioux Falls at 6:30 am, just in time to help Grandpa stuff the turkey. We could of eaten on time because we had everything ready except Abbie decided to blow dry her hair and the turkey roaster blew the fuse so we didn't catch that for about 2 hours, Way to go Abbie, I guess she forgot to tell anyone the blow dryer quit working. We got to see everyone and it was Good to be in our Home town again. As usual we flew around everywhere trying to see everyone and everything and left at 3:50am on Sunday and got back to Loveland at 11:57 am, so the kids could go back to work. It was a quick trip and I would do it again. Love the Boyles

Alicia, Ronny, Mejana, Lora, Michael, Kent, Tanner and me will be up at the cabin this weekend moving furniture so the carpet dudes can get it all down, I think someone else is coming too but can't remember oh well Merry Christmas

Brush Colorado

At Schwan's banquet 1991 about 4-5 months along

in our new home at 429 Cambridge St 01/12/1991

Managers Night at our 1991 banquet, it was a sock hop dress like the 50's wasn't she cute

Rita never liked her picture taken so I always had to be fast or she would dodge me this picture was taken 19 days before delivery 05/11/1991

at our Christmas party for our employees 12/29/1990

We landed in Brush on April 19Th 1990 and moved into a neat old rental in the old part of Brush with lotsa older big trees, just like Randolph Ne and of course lotsa young families close by who Rita instantly knew all of them. I remember the young mother across the street who had the same baby monitor we had and when she would talk to her baby we could hear it on the monitor, well that gave Rita an excuse to go meet her and see if she was hearing any of our fun things going on in our home. The rental had 4 window air conditioners, Rita thought we were really moving up in the world until we needed them and turned them all on, too find out they didn't do much except move the air around a little. The downstairs was OK but the upstairs was an oven and that's where the kids bedrooms where, so they didn't spend much time there during the day. The nights always cooled the house down and Colorado has very little humidity, which made Rita very Happy. I settled into my new positions as sales manager trying to figure out my managing style which took allot of effort because I'm a thick headed X Marine who likes to learn everything the hard way, Thank God I had Rita to calm me down and tell me things were going to be alright and think before you speak, which was hard to do. Quick note about 8 months into management I had a come to Jesus meeting where I put the law down on how we were going to run routes with all my Schwan's Men. I guess I should of run it by Rita before I had the meeting because what I was trying to do and what happened was totally opposite. My best people quit and all the ones I was trying to run off stayed. Morale of the story, don't try to put in what they don't have but improve what they do have and make them the Best they can be and life is Good. Speaking of life, Rita is out of birth control and hasn't found a doctor yet to get a new prescription, oh well maybe she wont get pregnant. My goal when we got married was 4 anyways and I need to Evan things up alittle as there is too much estrogen in our home. Oops September 1990 Rita gets pregnant AGAIN Yippee, it seems we did have a little time to ourselves. Man I Love watching Rita go through the stages of pregnancy But wait maybe Rita planned this because she was getting sick of this little rental and now with another kiddo coming, well i have to put it in high gear to find us a home since ours in Randolph has closed. So the very next month as we were driving around looking someone that day put a sign in their yard for sale by owner, you see the town had about 5000 people but I bet there was only 5-6 homes for sale, so when a new one came up they didn't last long. So Rita and I went to the door to see if we could check it out and before we left we had a contract on it. Its a bi-level and Rita loves it, except she not sure about the swamp cooler for a air conditioner, what the heck is a swamp cooler anyways, we don't need it till next summer so I guess we'll find out then how it works, and yes it did a great job keeping the temperature down, except sometimes at night when the wind was just right a cloud from the feed lot just north of town would head our way and we would know in a minute because the swamp cooler would blow all the nasty air into the home, then I would fly to turn it off.

Its a First! did the Blog at the cabin using my neighbors internet neato. Thats all for now I'll throw some more up on our trip to Sioux Falls and the finishing touches of the cabin. Merry Christmas The Boyles

Cabin almost ready

Notice Wayne working, Adam telling me I'm #1 and Paul showing us he is Atlas, on the addition I forgot to mention that needed to be done to connect to new addition

Adam and me cutting off the peak of the old part, which I still have and do not know what to do with it yet?

The old connected to the new, an engineering Marvel by the Lenhoff gang, notice the chimney, I actually tried to start a fire that nite to take the chill off the cabin, only to realize we had no chimney, only burnt some plastic and allot of smoke. (Knuckle Head)

This is the doorway from the old part to the new part up stairs, it fits me just fine but if your over 6' 1" your going to have a headache, just ask Adam Lenhoff who hit his head three times 'My Bad'

Biggest icicle ever after 3 days of snow over 5'

downstairs with new baseboard, ready for carpet

This is the connection joint between old and new part downstairs, above it I had to put 3 15" micro lambs to support second floor.

This is a picture from second floor old part with new window and Roof which gave us more room in that area, when we got to that part in the construction, I mentioned what we where doing according to the plans and they said they didn't know about that, and I said I showed you the plans but forgot to tell them that this was a tear off and new roof, heck only took them a few extra hours 1 night, it was fun watching them in action when the work gets tough.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

I spent the last weekend up at the cabin and it snowed all 3 days, I was finishing all the trim about 1600 feet of it that I had to sand and stain. She is almost done. I had the generator running all 3 days to power my table saw and chop saw, also had to cover up when I went inside or they would get covered with snow. As I was cutting a few boards I heard something from above and took a few steps forwards and the snow off the roof, just missed me, I said missed me missed me now you have to kiss me Rita. I didn't get my kiss but have been blessed by so many friends who have helped me at the cabin or have encouraged me through their words. You all are invited to Rita's birthday celebration at the Finished cabin on 12/11/2009. 1st ones their gets their choice of beds and bedrooms, except for Adam who said if any ones in his bedroom he will open up a whole can of Whoop ass on them. We all started this new addition for Rita on 06/05/2008 and God willing I will have a final sign off on this Friday. Love Mike and Family

Video of peak being torn down and notice the Hugh mess.

Life's moving on From Randolph to Brush

Schwan's Banquet with Marvin Schwan 1985 to 1990?

Rita and Michael, he was always eating

After we bring Michael home in July, Rita gets to take care of 2 small girls Alicia 5 and Ashley almost 2 and me almost grown up at 28, Rita is 27, and we've been married 8 years. Well back in those days only the Rich had central air so we were rich but not in cash so we had 1 window AC in our front living room and a house full of fans, you see I worked all day and left early am when it was cool and came home late in the evening 11pm-1am cool again, so I thought it was fine, not Rita, the heat and her did not get along. Especially after having Michael and being house bound for a while. Rita's parents always came down and spent some time helping her out with all the fun of running the Boyles household. Lets see Rita's daily chores starts out with by getting my cloths out for work, make me some coffee,make my lunch or lunches as I had double overnights every other week, do the Schwan's paperwork, take care of 3 kids, clean the house, talk on the phone, drive down to get the mail, deposit the Schwan's money, make meals, make me a plate for when I get home and wait for me to get home, Wow, she did not have a boring life. With all that, Rita did a fantastic job of running our household, now she did have 1 downfall balancing our checkbook, never happened the whole time we lived in Randolph.

About this time everyone in Schwan's is getting look at for promotion's, 1st to go is Randy and Donna Page, then Jon and Jeanie Schnoor ( I know I can't believe it either), well what about Mike and Rita, it seems I have a big mouth and when I drink I get cocky. I would still be there if it weren't for Rita as she always stood by my side and kept me going in the right direction by telling me how proud she was of me or disappointed when I drank and too look at my actions through other people's viewpoint. Which was hard for me as I only saw my way, Rita was a very patient, Loving, motivator, and the Best wife any man could hope for. We would take a walk around Randolph on Sunday evening and talk about our hopes, our dreams and where we would end up next year, then next year we would take the same walk and wonder whens our turn? It's our turn 11/1989, I get promoted to OJT manager and will be in training for 6 months and gone for week to weeks at a time, with never a complaint from Rita, just open arms when I finally come home again. Rita wasn't in my classes to keep reminding me to keep my big mouth shut, as I always spoke my mind and Did Not like authority until I respected that person, and to top it off I only wanted to be promoted close the the mountains somewhere, I was offered areas like North Dakota Nope!, Clovis New Mexico Heck No!, Finally Brush Colorado comes up on the radar screen, I remember Al Bussman taking me out for breakfast in Marshall Mn to talk to me about it, (Al was the original Division Manager who hired me and now was a Regional Manger who had Colorado), I asked Al if it was close to the mountains and his answer was No but you can see them from there. So off we go to Brush Colorado to meet with Bob Ludewig and check out Brush, population 5000, movie theater, Pizza Hut(Rita's in Love with it already), it was a farm community on the plains of Colorado, great schools and great people, only 1 thing Al said I could see the mountains from there, what he didn't tell me was I had to be on my roof at sunset to see them! Ha. We leave our beautiful Home in Randolph which we paid $26000 for in 1983 and put $12000 sweat equity in it, and sell it for $35000 in 1990 and land in Brush Colorado on April 19th 1990 with our 3 kids, a dog, a 1970 Chevy pickup with a camper on it, a trailer with 2 motorcycles and Rita car a 1986 Pontiac 6000, when you get promoted with Schwan's they pack and move everything for you, all we had to do was pack our cloths we needed for the trip, nice little perk. I need to back track a little to lead to the rest of the story. I bought our 1970 Chevy pickup with a camper on it in South Dakota after a banquet and income tax coming in for $2500, it was about 1985,you see I had taken Rita camping a few times and she was not into sleeping on the ground and dealing with the whole tent thing, so I thought that if we bought a camper she would enjoy going more, well she did until we started feeling the camper up with kids. We only had Alicia when we bought it and now have Ashley and Michael, Well Michael took the front seat with me and Rita and had to put Alicia and Ashley in the back when we went anywhere, and after we got there after about 2-3 days Rita would get claustrophobic and didn't wont to go anywhere in the truck after awhile. The only thing I didn't like about camping was finding the right spot or over crowded camp grounds. Had to insert this as it will lead to our decision to buy the cabin. Take Care everyone, the Holidays are coming and its our favorite time of year. We are heading back to Sioux Falls for Thanksgiving with all the kids ad spending Christmas at the cabin, I will be having a party for Rita on her birthday 12/11 at the cabin also, and will have it totally completed by then. Just FYI, Everyone has an open invitation to the kids cabin, so if you don't get an invitation, invite yourself, and we would Love to have you anytime, Evan at Christmas,(cabin can sleep 20+ on real beds and more if we count air mattress or the 5 couches) That's our Rita's Way. That's it for now, Love Mike and Family

Mejana 1st Birthday

Halloween Party 1990, I guess they should of bought something

Grandpa and Mejana Notice how much she Loves me

Daddy and Mejana, this is how she really looks before we clean her up

Auntie Paula with Rita's cake pan she used to make Mejana 1st birthday cake

Mommy and Mejana with the Demo cake

Mejana kissing Grandma Rita

Beautiful Mejana 1st Birthday Party Dress

Mommy and Daughter

Alicia and Paula put on an awesome 1st birthday party for Mejana, complete with Rita's old cake pan she used to make Alicia 2nd birthday cake, I think Rita's cake looked a little better than Paula but not by much. Paula and Rita surprized us with a Birthday Card from Grandma Rita which she wrote out when she knew God was taking her home. Rita called her Sweet Pea in the card, it made us all cry. It was grand ole time for Mejana, because all the attention was on her and opening all the presents, we had a little competition to make sure Granpa's was the best gift as I had to keep banging on her new Barbie piano to keep her wanting it evan though there was alot of cool gifts that would help her learn and make's all kinds of sounds, to keep her wanting all of them. Ronny and Alicia have done a Great job on Mejana and Rita was there for her very 1st breath and evan cut the cord along with her Ashley and Abbie. Its Halloween and I got to watch Mejana as Alicia had to make up a day at work. We had a Great time and she didn't start to whine until her Mother got home. Well Happy Halloween :>

Balloon Fiesta Albuquerque 2009

Old Town Albuquerque with Randy, Mag, Me, Jon and Jeanie

Balloon Fiesta, Randy,Mag,Jon,Tiffany,Cole,Jeanie,Me, and Cody

At dinner with gang

Mag and Randy trying to piss off Jon and Jeanie's neighbor.

on their back deck enjoying the view and warmth from God and maybe a Marga "Rita" too (that's a drink that came from Rita's celebration, I think we toasted Rita 1 too many times, as Jon kept filling our glasses)

Made a quick trip to New Mexico with the Randolph Gang, had to polish up my selling skills to get Mag and Randy to go with me. We had a great time reminiscing, drinking, balloon watching, telling lies about each other, and just being together, which everyone should do with their Family and Friends, let go of the time thing, money who needs it, and just plan some Awesome trips that don't cost hardly anything but reward you with Plenty, I will always pick a trip now over any other destination, that involves visiting Family and Friends!! See Ya Mike